GRATIDUDE!

So, I woke up in gratitude this morning, folks! First, because although I woke up several times during the night, I did fall asleep right away, and was able to go right back to sleep the five or so times I woke up. Also, my son, Justin didn't have to be at work until 10 am! Grateful not too early, and for sure, grateful that I have the realistic expectation that, with his mental challenges at 25, he will perform his job description to the satisfaction of his employer! That, my friends, is a goal reached: for Justin to maintain a job "in the community". No job coach needed! It is the single most important thing that makes the special needs population feel "like everyone else."

Then, even though I'm still suffering mildly from my sports injury from wii bowling, I got myself to my development's pool (in my gated community in south Florida), In the lap lane, I swam 30 laps (which = 60 X back and forth- 40 minutes) and then used the hot tub. Am I blessed or what???

I find living in the moment easiest while I'm swimming laps. I have to be present, because of breath control, strokes, kicking, timing. Counting the laps. Can't let stray thoughts interfere. Try though they may, I flick 'em away. When I try to mediate...not so easy, flicking 'em away.

I wear a cap, goggles and short swim fins for leg toning. I just love it. It was gray and cloudy and in the high 70s, much cooler than I've been used to over the summer. I am so very happy not to have to get my exercise in the health club (outside of which is this pool)...it's great to have it when the weather is rainy, but I really, really hate that eliptical freakin' machine! It must be raining for me not to swim! I may even give myself the occasional day off, if I can't swim.

So, I take this 56 year old body to the pool and put it to work. Here's the thing, when I say 56 year old body, I cannot believe it is I about whom I am talking. How did it happen to me, I wanna know? It's this dirty litte secret I've had over the years. I look at photos of my contemporaries and think: "Good thing I didn't get old!" It's not gonna happen to me! I was able to get 'til four months ago, before having to color the gray in my hair. Pretty freakin' good, no? Ergo, the swim cap...can't let the chlorine damage the color! I use a basic skin cream for my face, and aloe gel on my body.

My sister, Diana, is 11 years my senior (sorry, D.), and she has been taking care of her aging skin for ages. On a trip to Minnesota to visit, while in the bathroom I saw a plethera of jars, bottles and tubes. Stuff for wrinkles and sagging, stuff for sagging and wrinkles, stuff for lines and sagging, stuff for sagging and lines, stuff for...well, you get the idea. Then, I saw some sort of wand, about 8 inches long, with a wire attached. I brought it to her with a gleam in my eye and asked: "What's this?"...She said, "Put it down down, it will shock you."..."Shock me? Nothing will shock me!"....She said, "It's not what you think. It will shock you. You don't put it where you think. It is used to stimulate the muscles in your face. Helps with the sagging business, and if you put it where you think, it...willl...hurt!" "I am informed.", I replied. She has this aparatus you place your lips around. It houses a springy thingy and you shape your mouth into an "O", then a sort of grimace, then and "O" then a grimace...actually exercising the area around your mouth, you know, like the laugh lines (ventrioquist's dummy lines). I laughed, but, I gotta tell ya. My lines are deeper than her lines. Gotta get me a springy thingy!

She also has a routine, whereby she spreads the two vertical lines between her eyebrows, and puts tape over them. Supposed to soften 'em. It was my job to remind her, whenever we left the house, to remove the tape. As it happened, a couple of hours into our Mall of America trip, she scratched her forehead and felt the tape. "You little shit! One thing I ask you, and you can't even do that!", I giggled.........she punched my arm...hard!